Category: Boyband

Finally! I got the chance to watch The (arguably) Best Looking Bunch in Idols Universe’s concert (it’s the title I crowned them after having watched too many episodes of Inkigayo).

2PM World Tour ‘Go Crazy’ 2015 was my first K-Pop concert experience and I was really impressed. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t know them earlier. Had I known them as well as I do now, I would’ve made time to watch their performance in the Blackberry’s Live & Rockin’ Concert in 2011. Back then, it was only Suede that attracted me to go.

The show started at 6.30 PM sharp and it lasted for 2,5 hours. Pretty long I say. But due to my stupidity, I only managed to get into the concert hall when it was almost the second half of the show. I have to admit, these boys didn’t disappoint. Based on my previous experiences watching boyband concerts which all happened to be the ‘first-world countries’ boybands’ (LMAO), I think this was the first time that I felt truly mind-blown.

The problem with those first-world boybands is that I often feel that they don’t give their all at times. They are often caught laughing or giggling from inside jokes at the back of the stage. I get that they might be exhausted from all the shows they have to do, but here’s the problem. Some fans have to save a lot of money just to see their idols live and up close. For some it even takes months or even years to do so. So if they’re acting like “What country is this again? Oh, we might as well make a stop while we’re around”, that’s just unacceptable. New Kids On The Block was kind of like that when they had their first concert here back in 1992.

It was a completely different case with these boys. Throughout the concert (which I only got to watch half part of it), I hardly caught them fooling around with each other, at least not until the very end of the show. There was also no hint of boredom and tiredness. Everyone focused on entertaining the audience. So was when they had to bid farewell, it came across as a sincere goodbye. No repetitive saccharine sweet words of parting. My guess is (which still needs to be proven by watching more K-Pop shows) that it has something to do with Korean psyche to serve others pleasantly. It translated seemingly genuine as “we are here because of you” rather than just a mere lip-service.

The only problem I had was that I didn’t grow up listening to their music. I have no memory whatsoever about them in my adolescent years. So even if their performance was mind-blowing and hard-hitting, it didn’t really hit me that hard, though it did leave a wide smile on my face.

But then again, it could be just a problem with the sound and the melody. I can totally be immersed in Kim Dong Ryul’s songs because they give the same feeling of memory melancholia like those of The Carpenters’, for instance.

I vaguely remember the first time I watched NKOTB’s concert. It was back in 1992 and they were at the height of their fame, but soon to be slipping down. “Step By Step” was released 2 years before the much-awaited concert. It was the last NKOTB sound for me.

Back then, I attended one of those schools which had limited classrooms, so they split shifts. I was in second grade of junior high and all the second graders got the afternoon shift. So to watch the ‘dream concert’, I skipped school just to line up from 2pm while the concert itself was around 7 or 8pm. And I didn’t even hold the VVIP ticket, just the 3rd class one which was placed at the very back of the hall. OMG so silly! I can’t even remember how I survived waiting. Did I even eat? Maybe I was just hangin’ tough.

Fast forward 20 years to 2012, they have reunited for four years. They released a crappy single “Summertime” which video looks like a bunch of old perverts hanging out with young girls. Ew! The whole album was no better, it sounds… lost.

But for the sake of my fangirl heart who’s forever 14 at heart when it comes to NKOTB, I just couldn’t miss the NKOTBSB concert. Kind of surreal to think that I was going to watch the same idols I watched 20 years ago. It’s like a reminder, “Ah, yes, we’ve aged”.

And so have they. NKOTB was never known for its vocal strength. Even the dance-machine K-Pop idols have members who sing a whole lot better than Jordan Knight. That showed in their performance. Sometimes they sang off-tune, sometimes they lost breath. It’s quite painful to watch when that happened. But there’s almost no logic when it comes to fangirling. We were all screams and hysterical. And for a moment it was nice to remember we were once young.

1. Single / The One (NKOTBSB)2. Summertime (NKOTB)3. The Call (BSB)4. Dirty Dancing (NKOTB)5. Get Down (You’re The One for Me) (BSB)6. You Got It (The Right Stuff) (NKOTB)7. Larger Than Life (BSB)8. Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)(NKOTB)9. Valentine Girl (NKOTB)10. If You Go Away (NKOTB)11. Please Don’t Go Girl (NKOTB)12. Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely (BSB)13. 10,000 Promises (BSB)14. I’ll Never Break Your Heart (BSB)15. Drowning (BSB)16. Incomplete (BSB)17. Step by Step (NKOTB)18. Cover Girl (NKOTB)19. My Favorite Girl (NKOTB)20. Games (NKOTB)21. Tonight (NKOTB)22. Shape of My Heart (BSB)23. As Long as You Love Me (BSB)24. All I Have to Give (BSB)25. We’ve Got It Goin’ On (BSB)26. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) (BSB)27. I’ll Be Loving You (Forever) (NKOTB)28. I Want It That Way (BSB)29. Don’t Turn Out the Lights (NKOTBSB)